Thursday, March 14, 2013

The sages
of the Talmud describe all sorts of experiences with sheidim – creatures
which are neither human nor beast, which may or may not be visible or tangible,
and which affect our world in numerous ways. The term sheid is often
translated, unsatisfyingly, as "demon".

I have
heard all sorts of explanations for the nature of sheidim, including the
idea [attributed to Rambam, as you will see below] that sheidim are an
outdated superstition, but none of the explanations suits the canon of sheid-related
material in the writings of the sages.

I am
indebted to Rabbi Hillel Goldberg for showing me the following explanation. I
must confess that I don't understand it, but the little I grasp says this is a
very interesting idea. It comes from notes recorded by Rav Yitzchak Hutner,
published on page 74 of a Sefer Zikaron compiled in his memory. The book
is available in the Otzar haChochmah database. Here I present my own
translation, followed by the original Hebrew:

"In
the declarations of our sages we have found many indications of the existence
of sheidim. This is the way to explain it:

"The
statement in Avot d'Rabbi Natan 31 is known, that all that exists in the
universe exists in man. The reverse is also true.

"The
power of imagination is found in Man. With this power, Man designs for himself
a reality which does not exist, at all, in the universe; this exists only in
the realm of imagination. Since this power exists in Man, its parallel must
exist in some creature in the universe. Those creatures are the ones called sheidim
– theirs is an existence which is not an existence.

"When
we say of something that it is only imagination, we mean that nothing like it
exists in reality. However, certainly, for one who deals in human psychology,
when he investigates the activities of the human brain, for him this
imagination is certainly full-fledged reality.

"Thus,
it is appropriate that Rambam wrote (Commentary to Mishnah Avodah Zarah 4:7) that
sheidim do not exist in reality, and this does not contradict, at all,
the declarations of our sages which indicate the existence of sheidim."

Interesting! I usually translate "sheidim" not as 'demons' but as 'gremlins' (because from the descriptions they just sound much more mischievous than demonic)... but it sounds like Rav Hutner would prefer to translate it as 'hobgoblins [of little minds]'

I think the Rambam is saying they're all in the mind, and they DO exist anyway. In the neo-Platonic model of creation the Rambam outlines in Moreh sec II and in Yesodei haTorah ch. 2, it's all about Thought.

Hashem has a Thought, which has a thought, which has a thought, and so on down 10 levels of angels, the spheres, and us. And a prophet is someone who can ascend the chain, and therefore experiences metaphysically higher realities.

This idea is a book, not a blog comment. I did a somewhat longer but still insufficient explanation at this recap and the blog posts it points you to.

In any case, it could well be that the Rambam identifies metaphysics and ideas. The Leshem seems to understand / spin the Rambam that way, when the Leshem uses the Moreh to explain the Qabbalistic idea that the matter of one world is the forms of the world below it.

Even in current psychology, people talk about "exorcising one's demons." Today we psychologize them, but this does not mean they do not exist. The point might be that psychological trauma is real, even if it does not represent any kind of physical or metaphysical reality on the outside and is simply a projection of the mind. But a projection of the mind affects people in real life and must be dealt with; to express that trauma as an outside force/sheid may simply indicate that it is not necessarily intrinsic to a person but can be treated and gotten rid of. (H/T to Alan Brill's lectures as the basis for some of my own thoughts on the subject.)